


04/04/25: working on it

by excelsi_or



Series: to a boy i love right now [42]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Arguing, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24899017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/excelsi_or/pseuds/excelsi_or
Summary: Mingyu and Wonwoo sit Jihoon down and ask why he hasn't moved back in with her. So he goes to talk to her and it doesn't quite go to plan.
Relationships: Lee Jihoon | Woozi/Original Female Character(s)
Series: to a boy i love right now [42]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1252010
Kudos: 5





	04/04/25: working on it

_April 4, 2025_

“What we don’t understand is why you haven’t moved back in,” Mingyu says one morning at breakfast.

Jihoon is not happy for two reasons.

One, he’d had to be dragged nearly kicking and screaming back from the studio last night. He’s been in a writing funk and all the ideas that the other producers and songwriters have been spewing out have been uninspired, boring at best.

And two, Wonwoo and Mingyu have woken him up early for breakfast so that they can discuss his relationship apparently. Which is something he doesn’t want to discuss before he’s had any coffee.

“We like having you here,” Wonwoo mumbles. He’s only halfway through his first coffee. Jihoon doesn’t understand how Mingyu convinced Wonwoo to agree to an early morning intervention.

“But you guys have been together for a while now.”

Jihoon frowns, staring hard into his cereal bowl. Maybe his cereal will speak for him if he stares angrily at it long enough. It quickly dawns on him that no, the cereal can’t and won’t talk; and yes, Mingyu wants _him_ to fill the silence.

“There are still… kinks we need to work out.”

“Kinks meaning…?” Mingyu prompts.

It takes all the minimal energy Jihoon has left in his reserve to restrain himself from throwing his spoon at Mingyu’s head. “Kinks as in we broke up once. We know why it didn’t work. We haven’t really discussed how we’re going to fix it yet.”

“You’ve been back for almost a year now and have been together almost as long,” Mingyu states.

“It’s been _eight_ months and we’ve only been back together for… like, _four_ ,” Jihoon grumbles.

“All I’m saying is that _maybe_ you should work out the kinks,” Mingyu answers. He pushes his seat back, done with his breakfast.

Wonwoo exchanges a look with Jihoon and sips his coffee. “He’s right.”

**Jihoon (7:43)**

Hey, you got time to talk?

She calls him about three minutes after he sends her the text. He can hear a spoon clinking against ceramic on her end. She must be having tea. “What has you up so early?”

“Mingyu,” Jihoon grumbles.

“Ah,” she chuckles. “What’s up?”

“Kinks.”

There’s a long pause as she tries to discern what that could possibly mean. “Uhm… care to elaborate?”

“Kinks in our relationship.”

“Such as…?”

Jihoon sighs. He probably should have thought about what he was going to say before she called. He can’t just ask when he can move back in. It’s her place now. She pays the rent. “I don’t know. Like… why did we break up before?”

Her answer is immediate. “Because you were too busy to communicate with me. And I got too used to giving you all this space.”

“Have I changed?”

“No, but neither have I.”

Jihoon sits up a bit straighter on the couch. In their relationship, he’d always thought of her as the saint. “What do you mean?”

“Well, to get you to come home, I have to hear it from Mingyu or Wonwoo,” she says. “If I called you more and checked in on you, instead of being scared of annoying you, I’d know all those things myself.”

“You don’t annoy me.”

“Don’t I?” She laughs. “I can be pestering.”

“But I know you care.”

She snorts. “Yes, but that bugs you.”

“But it’s important to you.”

“I can’t always have it my way. You live your way and you know yourself best.” She pauses. “Mostly I want you home so I can have you to myself. There are selfish reasons.”

Jihoon chuckles. “Least you’re honest.”

Both of them go quiet, lost in thought.

“How about you come over for dinner?” she suggests. “That way I have more time to think about this.”

Later that night, Jihoon leaves work a bit earlier than usual. He lets himself into her apartment, wondering what it means that she’s never asked for the key back. Out of courtesy, he knocks twice on her door before pushing it open. She’s swaying to the song playing through the apartment as she cooks.

“Jagi,” Jihoon calls as he slips out of his shoes.

Without even turning, she waves him to sit down. “Almost done.”

Jihoon listens to the song as he sits. It’s a song he doesn’t recognize. The voice is fluid, the beats hard enough to want to sway, not hard enough to distract from the vocals. “Who’s this?”

“Seokmin.”

“Who?”

“That friend of Hansol’s.” She tosses an oven mitt onto the table so that she can put the pan down. Jihoon goes to grab two sets of chopsticks as she brings the rice cooker’s pot to the table. Jihoon pulls another oven mitt out of the drawer next to the stove and places it down next to the pan. He grabs a Coke from the fridge and her water bottle from the counter.

When they settle at the table, Jihoon addresses this ‘friend of Hansol’s’. “Why is a guy I’ve never met sending you songs?”

“Remember when I texted you last week that I was going out with Soonyoung and Seokmin?”

“I remember you saying that you were going out with Soonyoung for lunch.”

She stirs the contents of the pan with her chopsticks before putting some meat on top of her bowl of rice. “I know you’d get upset if I _didn’t_ tell you I was with Seokmin, so I told you that I was with Seokmin.”

Jihoon frowns, popping his chopsticks in his mouth so that he can use both his hands. He scrolls back a week. True to her word, there’s the text message that she’s going out for lunch with Soonyoung _and Seokmin_. Just below that is his little blue bubble telling her to have fun. When he looks at her, she has one eyebrow cocked.

“I thought it said Seungkwan.”

She shakes her head in dismay. “Is this really what you wanted to talk about this morning?”

“Well, now I realize there are _more_ things for us to talk about,” Jihoon retorts. Roughly, he puts rice in his bowl, a few grains falling onto the table. Chewing angrily, he stares at her.

But she’s used to Jihoon’s attitude. He’s going to hold out until she cracks first. He’s weirdly good at the game. “What do you want me to say, Jihoonie? Seokmin was telling me about the music he’s been working on and I asked if I could hear it. He’s debuting as a soloist next month.”

“So he sent you the song before anyone else has heard it? Are you sure he’s not—”

“I’m _positive_.”

“How?” Jihoon demands.

“Because he has a girlfriend,” she snorts. “Honestly, Jihoonie, it sounds like you don’t trust me.”

Exhaling, he tries to steady his emotions. “I trust you. I don’t trust guys I don’t know around you.”

“Ah.”

“Especially musical types.”

“Why does that matter?”

“You’re dating me and told me you weren’t into musical types _before_ you met me.”

“I’m surrounded by musical types,” she snorts. “Hansol and all your friends. I’d known of them beforehand. I wasn’t interested in them. That’s what I meant.”

“Yeah, well, clearly I’ve changed your mind. So how about any other musical type who’s tall and good-looking? They’re around too.”

“God, Jihoon.” She puts her chopsticks down and sits back with her arms crossed. “If you wanted to pick a fight with me, you could have done it over the phone.”

“I just don’t get why you don’t understand why I’m uncomfortable when other guys give you songs.” He puts his chopsticks down as well, not hungry anymore.

She shakes her head. “I _do_ kind of understand why you’re uncomfortable, but Jihoon, this is a relationship not a dictatorship. You don’t get to decide who I get to spend my time with.”

“My feelings should be considered,” he counters.

“They _are_ , but I’m not hooking up with Seokmin or anything. I interact with different types of people every day,” her voice is rising, “do you want to check them all too?”

Jihoon rolls his eyes. “I’m mad that a guy sent you a song to listen to. You’re blowing it out of proportion.”

She’s quiet for a while. Her voice is venomous. “I can’t believe you just rolled your eyes at me.”

A shiver goes down Jihoon’s spine, but he leans forward. “Because you’re being ridiculous.”

Jihoon watches a shift in her expression. The annoyed façade looks as if it’s cracking. There are two ways to play this: push forward or back off. If he makes her cry now, it’s over. The point of this conversation will have been proven and any attempt to reconcile will fail. It’s the tremble in her bottom lip at the weighted silence that causes him to slouch into his seat.

“Jagi, I’m just uncomfortable that he’s sending you songs. It’s personal and has a lot of meaning to me. I don’t let just anyone see my songs. All of mine are… love songs for you.”

She scoffs, sniffling a little. “Nice save,” she murmurs.

Internally, Jihoon is shaking. Outwardly, he struggles to keep his cool. “I know you well.”

She picks her chopsticks up again. “What exactly did you want to talk about?”

Jihoon explains the conversation he’d had with Mingyu and Wonwoo. He holds back bits of the conversation, not wanting to upset her again.

“They’re starting to sound nosy,” she grumbles as she eats.

“Well, because they _are_.” He takes a moment to eat. “But they’re right. Maybe we should talk about it.”

“Somehow these conversations always wind up with us arguing.”

“Do you love me?”

She answers in a heartbeat. “Yeah, I do.”

“Enough to want to work on this?”

She nods her head. “Yes, but we’re both going to have to compromise.”

“Lay it on me.”

She chews her food for a moment. “I want you to tell me how you’re feeling. I want to know so I don’t have to guess.”

“That’s it?”

“Essentially. What do you want from me?”

“To inform me of the new people in your life. I feel like you don’t tell me things, because you’re worried of hurting my feelings.” Jihoon hears the song loop for the umpteenth time. “It hurts worse learning after the fact.”

“Deal.” She holds her pinky out and he wraps his around hers.


End file.
